Over the past few weeks there have been a number of drivers setting personal records for race starts; at Charlotte Jimmie Johnson made career Cup Series start number 700, Trackhouse Racing now has 300, Denny Hamlin made career Cup Series start 700 over the weekend at Nashville.
With some three dozen Cup Series races each season, career race starts can add up quickly and with a 20 plus year career, a driver can pile up an impressive number of starts; but who has the most????
There are now 33 drivers who have at least 600 career Cup Series starts…sorry Kyle, your hundreds of starts in the Craftsman Truck and Xfinity Series don’t count in this stat.
Most All-Time career NASCAR Cup Series starts:
James Hylton – 602
Smoke himself, Tony Stewart – 618
Dale Earnhardt Jr – 631
Buck Baker – 635
J.D. McDuffie – 653
Dale Jarrett – 668
Joe Nemechek – 674
Before his death at Daytona in 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr had 676 Cup Series starts
Marting Truex Jr. – 694
Jeff Burton – 695
Matt Kenseth – 697
Denny Hamlin – 700
Buddy Baker – 700
Jimmie Johnson – 700
Rusty Wallace – 706
Bobby Allison – 718
Kyle Busch – 728 – he would have ranked higher but missed several races with a broken leg and foot in 2015
Bobby Labonte – 729
Ryan Newman – 733
Sterling Marlin – 748
Ken Schrader – 763
Kurt Busch – 776
Michael Waltrip – 784
Jeff Gordon – 805
Darrell Waltrip – 809
Kevin Harvick – 826
Bill Elliott – 828
Kyle Petty – 829
Mark Martin – 882
Mr. Wingtip himself, Dave Marcus – 883
Terry Labonte – 890
Ricky Rudd – 906
and the only driver to top the 1,000 career starts with a whopping 1,184 is The King himself Richard Petty!
Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, and Dale Earnhardt Jr’s career were all shortened after crashes involving severed concussions.